A Spark in the Darkness - Part 3 - Destiny's End
by Serina562
Summary: As the rebellion reaches its crucial moment, the former farmgirl finds herself at destiny's shatterpoint: it's losing the love of her life or utter doom for the whole galaxy. And yet, how is she to live on with only half a heart? DISCLAIMER: STAR WARS DOES NOT BELONG TO ME, IT BELONGS TO GEORGE LUCAS, LUCASFILM, AND DISNEY. THANK YOU.


**Prologue V**

(9 ABY)

 _Curiosity killed felinx._ The old proverb flashed through Dara's mind as she snuck into her mother's room. She was not sure why she was trying to avoid any loud noises. After all, aside from her sleeping brother, she was alone in the house. Her mother had gone to Pandath together with her friend Caaroq, and Marisa and Kayv were out in the fields. None of them would return until several hours after sundown. And although she felt slight pangs of conscience at what she was about to do, she just had to know.

Just two more long _Taanabian_ days and it would be her fifteenth birthday. Her mother had promised her something really special, but she had not given her any clues at all as to what it might be. And the others had been just as tight-lipped. It was so frustrating, that Dara had decided to jump at the chance when she had the house to herself. There had to be some hint to be found in her mother's things, something, anything to tip her off as to what that big surprise might be.

Although Serina's room was the smallest bedroom in the house, it was by no means cluttered. A medium-sized bed and a nightstand along the left wall, a desk with a chair in front of the window, a few shelves and the opening into a walk-in closet on the right. Three pictures adorned the walls. The first one was an old painting of the _Coruscant_ skyline from a time long before the Clone Wars. It had once belonged to her mother's first teacher in the Force, Tantra. The second was a highly-stylized drawing of their castle on _Vaderra_ , which Serina had commissioned after their first vacation there shortly after the liberation of _Taanab_. And the third was a collage of scenes depicting the most outstanding events of the struggles of the rebellion against the Empire. It had been a present from a close friend just a year prior.

As Dara's gaze swept across the relatively plain furnishings, she noticed the small cube she had been allowed to consult a few times in the past years. It was a Jedi holocron of inestimable value, that her mother had discovered more than sixteen years prior. There were also a few decorative items, a small jewelry chest - once a gift Caaroq had made Serina after her graduation from _Prefsbelt_ -, a couple of old fashioned books, one of them even bound in some sort of leather, and two holocubes that displayed alternating pictures of herself and her brother. All of it was familiar, nothing was new and nothing offered any hint at her present.

The walk-in closet turned out to be just as much of a wild Yunax chase as the drawers in the desk. Could it truly be that her mother had left no stray hint at all? Dara just wouldn't believe it. If she didn't find a clue in her mother's room, she would search some other likely places in the house. She sat down on the bed and opened the top drawer in the nightstand. Two more books, both worn with use, a handful of wrapped candies, a small bottle of her mother's favorite perfume, and several packs of soft tissues. After picking up one of the candies, peeling it out of its wrapper and popping it into her mouth, she closed the drawer and pulled the bottom one open.

A stack of datacards greeted her together with a small recording unit. She flipped through the square storage devices. Some had already been used, while others still wore the factory seal. For a brief instant, she considered plugging one of them into the recording unit. But her conscience got the better of her. Rummaging through her mother's room in search of her present was one thing. Whatever it was, it would be hers anyway in a few days. But listening to those recordings was just too invasive. And she had certainly learned better than to do that!

Placing the stack back in the drawer behind the recording unit, her hand brushed against another hard object at the very back of the drawer, hidden underneath a red scarf, Marisa's present for her mother's last birthday. She removed the rectangular item and was surprised to discover that it was an old-fashioned picture frame. Although still in use on many planets on the Outer Rim, they were considered outdated even on _Taanab_. The pictures they displayed appeared three-dimensional but were not projected into the air as with a holocube. And this time, she just couldn't resist. Ignoring her protesting conscience, she pressed the activation button on the right side.

She recognized her mother immediately, although she could have been no more than seventeen or eighteen years old at the time the shot was taken. It depicted her in the uniform of a naval cadet together with another young woman, engaged in a heated discussion during dinnertime, a finger raised in mock accusation at whoever had just taken the picture. For a long moment, she studied her mother's face, noticed the many similarities with her own and the lack of the hard lines it had acquired in the years since. Then she pressed the advance button.

In the next picture, her mother stood at the edge of a large plaza. A huge statue filled most of the background of the picture, dwarfing the young woman despite her great distance from the famous monument. Dara wondered, what her mother had done at this young age on _Imperial Center,_ as it had still been called during those years. Had she not been at the naval academy on _Prefsbelt_?

Quickly, she moved along to the next shot. It showed her mother with another woman, several years her elder. Dara recognized her immediately. It was her mother's best friend, Caaroq. Although she could not identify the location where the picture had been taken, Dara guessed it to be _Coruscant_ as well. As were the pictures that followed.

Finally, she arrived at several pictures that were easy to identify: the graduation from the academy on _Prefsbelt_. Her mother receiving an honor baton, a shot together with the other cadet from the very first picture, and one with a large group of cadets, apparently, some of her classmates.

The next shot was kind of strange. It showed her mother with a large, richly ornamented wooden chest. Dara wondered if it was the same chest she had once caught a glimpse of in the castle on _Vaderra_. It certainly did look quite similar.

The following pictures showed her mother at various locations, apparently on different planets, sometimes in the company of people, she could not place at all. But she noticed the changes in her mother, saw how she matured with each new picture, grew older and harder at the same time. There was no clue in any of the pictures, as to why the shot had been taken. A few times, her mother was in uniform, but mostly she was wearing civilian clothes, which Dara considered strange as well. One time, she was even wearing a fancy dark blue dress that left one shoulder bare - apparently made of some sort of shimmersilk - and was in the company of a handsome young man also dressed in some elaborate outfit.

When she switched to the next picture, she nearly dropped the whole device. She could not believe, what she saw. Was that truly her mother? What had happened to her? She seemed to be seriously injured. But she just could not believe, who was carrying her toward the recording device. She shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind of the unsettling sight. But the picture stayed the same. What dealings did her mother have with _him_? Of all the people in the Empire, why _him_?

Suddenly, an awful suspicion caused a shiver to run down her spine. What, if the homonymy had been more than just coincidence? With a morbid fascination, she enlarged the picture until she could get a better look at her mother's face. For long moments, she studied the emotions displayed in the familiar features. And the longer she pondered what she saw there, the more her suspicion grew into a gut-wrenching certainty.

"We are back!" A call from downstairs brought Dara back to the here and now. As fierce anger over what she had just discovered washed over her, she jumped to her feet and rushed from her mother's bedroom, the picture frame still clutched firmly in her hand.

Before her daughter came rushing down the stairs and into the living room, Serina could sense that something awful had happened. She was taken aback by the waves of fierce anger that washed over her from the presence of her daughter, but only for a moment. As she dropped her bags and stepped toward the upset teenager, she suddenly noticed the rectangular device in Dara's hand.

 _Uh-oh_ , she thought by herself, _did she just discover what I think she discovered?_ For five years, she had been searching for the right time to reveal the truth about who her daughter's father truly had been. But it had never come. It had also kept her from revealing the truth about what she had done in the past twenty years. She had never intended to keep any of it from her child. But this was certainly not the way she had wanted her to find out about it.

Her daughter had stopped abruptly at the foot of the stairs and was staring at her with an accusing and at the same time deeply hurt expression on her face. "Why?" she yelled at her mother and flung the picture frame toward her. "Why him?"

Serina caught the device in midair and took a quick look at the picture. Just as she had feared. It depicted her, badly injured, in the arms of her master, as he carried her toward the waiting _Star Lady_. The ship's sensors had recorded the scene and she had transferred this picture to her small collection before erasing the recording. It had become her most cherished shot, despite the horrible condition she had been in when it had been taken.

"Please, Dara, come over here and sit down with me. I will try to explain it to you." With an inviting gesture, she stepped toward the large couch in the middle of the living room. But her daughter was not finished yet.

"And you, Caaroq," she addressed her mother's best friend, "you were in on it the whole time, weren't you? You knew it all along!"

"Dara, please," Serina had to contain herself to not use the Force to calm her upset daughter. Dara had learned too much in the past years to not notice and that would make things only worse. "Don't blame Caaroq. It was my decision and mine alone. Please, let us talk about it. Please, let me explain it to you." Again, she motioned invitingly toward the couch.

When her daughter still didn't move, she placed the picture frame on the table in front of the couch and sat down. She couldn't force her to listen, but she would keep up the invitation as long as necessary.

Long minutes passed in utter silence, as Dara lingered at the foot of the stairs, fighting within herself as to how to react to her mother's invitation.

"What's going on?" a sleepy voice from the top of the stairs caused Dara to spin around toward her little brother.

"It's all right, Ben," Serina assured her son. "Caaroq, would you mind bringing him back to bed?"

Her friend just nodded in silent confirmation and slipped past Dara. Moments later, she was gone and Ben along with her.

Dara finally pulled herself together and stepped up to the couch. After she had taken a seat across from her mother, she gazed expectantly at Serina, some of the accusation in her expression replaced by an intense curiosity. "So, mother, what was that Sith Lord to you," she cut to the chase, not willing to give her mother another chance to evade the subject. "Was he my father?"

"Now, Dara, there are many things you don't know about me and about the past twenty years of my life. And not everything you know about him is based on facts, either. But the most important thing you need to keep in mind is the following: I have and always will love him. I can't and don't want to change that, ever. And no matter, how evil he appeared to be, there was always a spark of good left in him. Otherwise, he could have never turned back to the light side at the very end in order to rescue his son from the Emperor. Please, don't think badly of me for my love for him. How could I have refused to walk that path? It had been my destiny all along. How else could that spark of good have been preserved throughout those evil years, the spark, that, in the end, erupted into a cleansing fire?"


End file.
